Of Gods and Mortals
by Rei Fallenstar
Summary: Do Gods really exist? Immortality is in the eye of the beholder, and fate is leading the most powerful beings to have ever existed into a clash of ideals, yet all the shy, gentle young woman wants to do is hide. Future-AU
1. Delivered Unto This World

Disclaimer: All character references and appearances to those related to Stargate: SG1 are not of my own creation. The plot and rest of the characters are of my own making.

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**Prologue - Delivered Unto This World**

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Escape had always been an exhausting prospect, and executing the notion had not proved the young woman wrong. In fact, she had never been more numb and detached from her physical body in her life, causing her to wonder if she was really even alive. For a moment, it didn't seem that it would really matter, but the weight of reality soon returned to her mind, and she knew that if she died now her guilty conscious would force her to roam the site of her death for eternity.

Painfully, she forced her eyes open and took several deep breaths, each of which sent pain searing through ever nerve in her body. Many things seemed to be broken, and she wouldn't be surprised if she were soaked in blood and covered in wounds. Intellectually, she knew that it was either the mark of shock or blood loss that made her so unfocused, but even that realization drifted into a sea of blissful nothingness. Only her call of duty, her last desires, forced her to keep moving.

For the most part, she seemed to be like any other human being, which was why she had chosen the small ship and navigated it with her instincts to a place where she and her daughter could live peacefully… fate, however, had its own wishes. All around, she could see the twisted metal of the wreckage and smiled grimly. It was by cruel fate's hands that she had not died on impact, and she was eternally grateful for her last chance. All certainties of normalcy would be ruined if she had not lived long enough to mask the origin of mother and daughter's descent.

Weakly, she forced herself to stand and showed some unnatural resilience that, torn as her body and mind were, she could still manage to move at all. Step by wavering step, she came to the pod where her young daughter slept, only an infant, yet an infant so dangerous to the Master's plan that he had ordered her death along with that of her mother. She would have died soon anyway… she was no fool and the end results of his experiment, though seemingly successful, had caused a rapid deterioration of her mind and body. She simply gave herself to the very cause of their soon to be execution, and found herself flawlessly free.

If only she hadn't known that her daughter had survived as well. As any mother would, she felt worry again as she removed the child from the escape pod and pulled the infant into her arms. So small and helpless, and yet she couldn't rely on her own mother to carry her to safety. How easy it would have been to feign heavy amnesia and wander helplessly into one of their smaller towns and drink on the minds of the people there until she knew enough and could place her child into loving hands. If only, if only. She shook her head and lowered herself to the ground, feeling the child breathing deeply in her slumber.

There was only one last thing for her to do. She closed her eyes and the metal slowly began to seep into the ground. Not melted, yet no longer of its original material. It flowed, into the ground, under the ground, then was no more. All that was left were the deep gouge and scorch marks left by the impact and the dragged trail leading to them. Far off, she faintly heard a strange noise that approached. Probably the locals of the town who had seen the crash landing coming to investigate what would soon be a corpse and their newest member. She smiled, blissfully unaware of the tremendous paperwork and strange mystery she and the child would create, or what would become of the infant she had brought into existence and delivered with all of her love onto a place she had thought was safe.

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Author notes: Well, I started it. It wasn't meant to be long because it's only an introduction and teaser about the upcoming character's life. I suppose I'll tell you now that the time setting is an AU future, sometime after the fall of the System Lords and Ori, yet the government, being a pain in the butt, will not have yet released information about the Stargate publicly. Also... don't worry about the shortness about the introduction. It's more about the fact there's not much to say than my lack of writing. Things will get more interesting and the chapters will get longer from here on.

This particular chapter is about 18-20 years prior to this point in time. I'll tell you now that I actually stopped watching Stargate and never followed through to it's ending, though I own the DvDs up to season 6 and will review them for some background. If you take note in my profile, this is how I usually write story-wise. I don't know what else I'll do or who I'll add or how this will all end yet. I'm still toying around with the extensive freedoms I'm giving myself. I might check out a written summery of how the Stargate series ended…

… and may I say that I'm still rather annoyed at Stargate: Atlantis. Mostly because years before it's release I was doing a roleplay very similar to it. A Stargate-OC crossover. I'm trying to not go there for the sake of saving some canon-ness, but no promises . (btw, my ideas for Atlantis owned theirs).

Rei


	2. The Familiar and the Strange

Disclaimer: All character references and appearances to those related to Stargate: SG1 are not of my own creation. The plot and rest of the characters are of my own making.

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**Chapter One - The Familiar and the Strange**

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For weeks it was the same thing over and over, but there wasn't anything she could do about it. Kali Ravvens actually enjoyed the rigors of her training, the set schedule changing only slightly, yet with a steady pace that soothed her easily disturbed mind. Since childhood, unexplained and abrupt changes had always shaken her, yet as she matured she mastered the art of hiding how sensitive she was from others. It was a cursed blessing that she had managed to talk herself into following her brother into the Air Force training routine, but it was this routine which amazingly bothered Jason Ravvens far more than his sister. 

Slightly curled hair fell about her shoulders, only lightly brushing against her nondescript black shirt while dark brown eyes studied her M-16. She had broken the weapon down, cleaned it, and reconstructed it so many times, she wouldn't be surprised if she could do this in the time it took half of the people in the middle of boot camp to break and rebuild theirs without the cleaning thrown in. But, that was only a statement Jason would make, boasting something she didn't want noticed. She had handled weaponry before as their mother owned a weaponry and hunting shop. Kali was quite proud of herself, in a secret sort of way, to know that she could handle most of the weapons in that shop.

Jason, seeming to know he had crossed his sister's mind, wandered over to where she was sitting, promptly plopping down next to her in an arrogant display of masculine grace. With shortly cropped blonde hair and steely-gray eyes and looming over the smaller woman, they looked nothing alike. Nothing in their faces matched, and their skin tone was completely different, hers being more than a few shades paler, no matter that she had spent just as much time outside as he had. He was another sort of breed from Kali, outgoing and his radiance screaming to the world, 'Look at me, here I am!'

Perhaps one of the strangest things about their family was that the two of them were the same age, celebrating their birthday on the same day. Yet, Kali still felt that Jason was so much older no matter what. He had always been her personal protector, a role she had never asked of him and which he never blamed her for. It was simply how they were. Both carried copies of the same family picture, and it was often said that Jason looked as much like his mother as Kali looked like their father.

Kali did look up at him, her hands moving over her weapon as she finished reconstruction, feeling for any faults before she took half a moment's rest and started taking it apart once again. Jason met her eyes and looked down at the weapon she wasn't even gazing at, then rolled his eyes.

"God's sake, woman. It's your last bit of time off before you get shipped home for a bit, and you're still screwing around with that damn gun?" he complained to her, then gave a half grin. Had Kali not grown up with the young man, she would have been offended by his scolding tone, but paired with his knowing look, she didn't even bat an eyelash at him. With Jason, everything was fine.

"I'm just thinking how I'm going to miss this place," she said offhandedly, earning a scoff from her brother.

"Oh, yes, I'm going to sorely miss getting up at six and not being able to even nap until five, which would ruin my night's sleep and throw off my eating schedule. Not to mention that weird shower bit they came up with. If I had my way, the routine would be much funner," he grinned, yet all of his talk was boastful.

While he looked forward to their work to come to fruition and something to finally come back to them for their hard work, Kali was nervous and wanted to cling onto what had become familiar. And Jason knew that as he looked back to her constantly moving hands. While some would say she was obsessive compulsive about her rifle, he knew that if he simply took the damn thing away, she would just pent up her tense energy and do something else later when she could get her hands on anything. And anything meant anything from a shoelace to someone else's weapon. She was venting physically just as he would vocally.

"Funner isn't really a word," she pointed out, looking down at the pieces she had, then started putting them back together. "And I know… I'm probably going to loose something at this rate… but I'm not really off just yet. I've been… summoned and I have to attend in half an hour," she shivered nervously at the prospect. "I think they're going to make me repeat training, or I did something wrong, or…"

"Nah," Jason reached out and grabbed Kali's shoulder firmly. She finished reconstruction and put the weapon up before Jason continued, "They can't do that when you've done nothing wrong. Your work was flawless. Hell, you're one of the best here, even better than some of the guys. You work hard… and I don't even think they know how nervous you are. Even if you are, it's not like you're asking to be on the front lines, just going through the Air Force to get a nice old job doing whatever you want."

Kali smiled faintly, reassured a little by his touch and reassurances. He was familiar, and they were transferring to the same place, so she knew she could depend on him to be there for her. But she still worried that they knew she was… flawed. Not really the type for military life, she didn't often speak up unless answering a superior. But that was all that was expected of her, so she did wonder why she was being put under review. Or maybe it wasn't even review. She allowed herself to consider that she really was a useful person and maybe they only wanted to… talk. But what about?

"I just wish I knew what they were thinking," she lowered her head, a black curtain of hair falling about her face and shielding herself from being seen. Jason simply brushed her hair out of her face and frowned thoughtfully.

"You're my kin," he said firmly. "I've stood by you while you were teased and beat the crap out of anyone who spoke badly to you or of me. I won't allow even the government to look down on you. You don't have to take anything they say, you haven't signed yourself away to anything just yet. If they bother you, just back out. You've gotten something from this, you always get something important from anything you do. Just go back to Mom and her store and decide on a nice college."

Kali knew then that he had been considering this route for himself as well. He never said anything that he hadn't applied to himself, and though he was a little narrow minded, it gave him a large amount of confidence when he spoke because he had thought very hard on what he was speaking about and felt he was an authority because of that.

It amused Kali to no end when she constantly provided new insights to something and completely threw him off balance. But still, whenever he said anything, it caught the attention of anyone listening to him and made them believe that anything he said might be a solid and reasonable path without trouble or shame. Thankfully, he hadn't yet suggested jumping off of a bridge in his convincing tone, a thought that Kali kept to herself. She wouldn't even tell Jason everything that she thought, even though she knew that he would have been amused and tempted to try it.

"I suppose," she murmured in answer, looking away as he removed his hand from her shoulder. "I still don't even know what I want to go into for certain, and I'm afraid that's what they want to talk about…"

Jason observed her for a moment after she had said this, then offered a shrug. Her guess was as good as his, the gesture said. And that's not really the answer she had been hoping for. Still, she felt a little less stressed and worried after having talked to someone.

"Have you said your good-byes to all of your new friends?" she inquired thoughtfully. Jason wordlessly pulled out a small address book and flipped it open. Crammed sloppily onto one page in no particular order, a few names and phone numbered were scrawled in many different styles of handwriting. For a moment she stared at the page, then burst into silent laughter. She have given that to him for a present before they had come here, and he had never bothered with really looking at it past the soft hide the outside was made from, and the golden page border which fascinated him. But the uses of the book were fated to be abused, as he couldn't be bothered to flip around between the pages, or even use his own handwriting.

"We'll say farewell over the phone before we're shipped off and the government eats our brains and makes us zombies. You should know that," he said, nudging her playfully. Some things never really ever changed, and as Kali laughed a little harder, she was grateful for such small blessings. He suddenly grabbed her in an affectionate hug, a rare display which Kali took full advantage of and returned his embrace without a moment's hesitation.

_000_

Only a handful of minutes to 18:00 hours, Kali presented herself to the familiar and unfamiliar people of the Air Force. Her salute was stiff and formal, her face an impassive mask hiding all of the tense fear she had displayed earlier. Her hair was done up tightly into a bun at the nape of her neck and her hat placed so it covered most of even that. Her uniform had been straightened and her boots shined a little as well, making herself appear very well groomed and respectful. Not to say that she wasn't initially respectful, but under her stoic mask, she looked as if one could light fireworks by hear head and she wouldn't flinch. Inside, her stomach was churning madly, which was almost painful considering the knots already in there.

"At ease, Ravvens," her usual superior said, his tone just as sharp as ever, though it no longer made her flinch openly. Her hands lowered and she gripped her wrist behind her back, legs shoulder width apart. Her formality seemed to surprise the two strangers present, both of which were high ranking officers… and people Kali instinctively smelled 'secrets' all over. However, she kept her eyes focused ahead, waiting for whatever punishment she was to be given and the reasoning for it… having only finished boot camp, it was highly unlikely anything good could come of this meeting.

"She looks very at ease," she nearly lost her composure at the strange General's words, wondering for a moment what she had done wrong. She was only standing by as she had been taught. What did he want for her to do? Lounge against a wall and chew gum? Without waiting for a reply, though, he stood and moved closer, peering at her closely. She never once moved, having not been spoken to, her eyes not even flickering to glance at him. She could only watch out of her peripheral vision as he seemed to… circle her? Evaluate her? Her chin raised a fraction, almost defiantly to the scrutiny.

"Colonel Carter and Major General O'Neill are here to evaluate you for a rather special… program," she didn't react to this in the least, only to answer, "Yes, sir," in a brisk voice. She had never heard of either of these people before, nor of any special program, and wondered, perhaps for the hundredth time, what the hell was going on?

Carter stepped forward then, considering her with a gentler stare than the Major General, yet with the same intent gaze. Again, Kali held her ground, watching… and feeling for both of the strangers. They were still close and something seemed other-wordly about them. Their presence nearly caused Kali to retreat, but the weeks of her training paid off heavily as she refused to give in to her imagined suspicions.

"I wonder," she said softly, then looked to the head of the boot camp, "if we could inspect her privately? It's the nature of the Stargate program," she said it suggestively, yet it was a command. The man inclined his head and left, the door closing firmly behind himself. Then, the Colonel turned and looked back to Kali. "I think you might know the exact reasons of why we're here."

For a moment, Kali lost control and glanced at the older woman's eyes, then mastered herself and looked away, still no expression crossing her face. In truth, she was baffled about this suggestion, but didn't let her mind stray too far from the fact she had to answer. Without much hesitation, she gave a firm, "No, ma'am.'

Carter gave a soft humming noise, then shrugged at the Major General, who raised an eyebrow. His strange attitude reminded her of Jason, aloft and easy to interpret as arrogant, yet she believed his intentions in his manner were not cruel. However, Kali was often wrong about people, and simply reserved her judgement. Instead of pondering on his behavior, though, she ventured to speak out of turn. "Have I done something wrong, Ma'am?"

Both gazed at her appraisingly until she stopped breathing. Why did they keep looking at her like that? It was going to drive her insane! Her jaw clenched as she waited for a response, the gesture a little more visible than her previous breaks in acting stoic.

"Nah," the General said, still managing to look dignified. "Not yet, at least. We're not holding our breath."

The Colonel shot him a glance that made Kali believe they had known each other for a long time. "We heard you are a very promising young woman," she said with more formality than her superior. "And we are interested in recruiting you to our program."

Secrets. Kali almost shivered, wanting to get away from these two, a strange fear gripping her. They were unfamiliar and strange to her. Her jaw clenched and unclenched for a moment before she inquired, loosing a little of her own formality, "May I ask what the Stargate Program is?"

"A top secret military operation comprised of elements from the Air Force, U.S. Army, Marines, and a few foreign military operatives," she said simply. For a moment, Kali wondered why the General hadn't answered, only to wonder shortly after if he could even say anything formal without a twist of words or tone that suggested something other than formality. What was his purpose here, in that case? "However, before we disclose the true nature of this operation to you, we must put you under a contract of secrecy."

Kali remained silent for a bit, waiting for more, but there was nothing more. Her neck was starting to get stiff and her jaw was starting to ache. After this, she would probably have to start running laps to get the rest of her tension out, or she wouldn't be able to sleep or focus. "Why," she said finally as curiosity grabbed at her, "is the government recruiting out of boot camps for such an important program?"

Another pause of silence. She had a point, and she knew it. She had no experience and it seemed a bit early in her life to be entrusted with something so secretive. Her eyes wavered again as she looked at the General, who seemed in the verge of speaking, but never made a move to say anything. Her eyes then moved to the Colonel, who seemed to be considering her words very carefully.

"There are certain times when we make exceptions to the rules and certain people who prove themselves and who we wish to begin training early on. Considering the duration for which the program has been running, we've gotten our own personal training facilities fully incorporated and can pull recruits out of boot camps more often," she said, pausing so Kali could process this information. She really used big words well, something that amused Kali to no end. Still, she didn't trust these two people to be fully truthful. "The only thing left to say is that there is no other experience on this world quite like being a part of the Stargate program."

That, she didn't doubt. What she did doubt was something else deeper. That these people would regret having her when they learned she was a coward at heart and fled from conflict. Still, the prospect intrigued her enough that she nodded finally. "I would like to know more."

The secrecy contract was signed after Kali spent her time carefully reading all of the fine print. She could be sent to prison or a crazy house for going about and spreading rumors of the program, it pretty much said. Old as this program seemed to be, it was only getting more and more guarded, the contract hinted. Once the paperwork was filled in, the General took the papers, gave a salute and an almost cross-sounding farewell, before walking out. After a moment, the Colonel lead Kali outside to where a car was waiting. She wondered if Jason would get worried, but then quieted her own wondering superstitiously. This trip, she had been told, shouldn't take too long. She ought to be back in contact with her brother within hours.

Not that she really trusted that, either.

_000_

Samantha Carter paused after sliding into the back seat. Thankfully, this particular boot camp wasn't far from their destination, something the government had planned on. When Ravvens had been spotted on the list of recruits, strings were pulled to put her close to the Cheyenne Mountain complex. The young woman who sat next to her and closed the door, making few wasted movements in strap herself in and settling down quietly radiated an almost eerie calm. Sam doubted it was more than a show, but when Ravvens still didn't relax out of the public eye, she found herself frowning.

Of course Kali wouldn't know the mysteries around herself. Her parents had sworn under contract to never tell their adopted daughter about the strange occurrences around how she had been found, in a torn and burnt field in the arms of a dead woman. There was nothing more than the strange appearance of the scene to suggest there was any connection to the young woman and any of the alien races she could have been in touch with, or that might have influenced her. For the most part, she simply seemed to be an aloft and intelligent young woman, but Sam knew that it was dangerous not to investigate her as well, just in case.

She closed her eyes with a soft sigh, pulling her thoughts together. Jack had been there to try and identify if there was anything out of the ordinary with her. She would have probably asked Daniel to come with her if Jack hadn't already been there, checking up on the progress of things. Only months ago, Sam herself had been off-world on Atlantis, but recent circumstances had pulled her back home to Earth, and her previous promise years ago to personally investigate the suspicious circumstances around Kali Ravvens kept her in the same place. But, it was with Jack's help that she hadn't had to fight her way into pulling Kali off of the grounds, or into doing anything that could have been required if Kali had turned out to be unduly hostile.

She looked to the younger woman and remembered the photographs of the woman's maimed body and the tortured earth that looked like a large crash had occurred. The suspected alien's body had long since been cremated and the ground re-sculpted, but the police and offhand government allowances kept things quiet for Kali's peace of mind. This had been a quick and effective way to slide over the incident, and a perfect way to pick the investigation back up. In fact, save for the strange blue of the deceased's woman's eyes, Kali looked everything like what the woman might have been, unwounded. But, as an infant, she had shared the same color in her eyes. But now, they had changed to the nearly black shade of brown that her adopted family had. Sam's lips thinned, wondering if it was simply the natural change of eye color that many infants went through, or some alien adaptation.

Ravvens seemed to know that Sam was watching her, as she managed to straighten even more, her hands folded neatly in her lap and jaw clenching once again. She seemed to have a strange habit of doing that, something that reminded her of Teal'c when the Jaffa was growing irritated. Maybe she was of Jaffa descent? No, there had been no pouch noted on the body, and even the Jaffa women had that. Her stiffness was also uncharacteristic of the Jaffa, who seemed to be relaxed and eternally vigilant. And she couldn't be a part of the more advanced races, or she would have shown early signs of causing an unexplained phenomenon.

Watching her sit like that made Sam's back hurt. She gave a soft sigh and checked their progress. Only a few more minutes to go. "Ravvens," she said abruptly, causing the young woman to jump. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

Kali hesitated only a fraction of a second before answering with a crisp, "Yes, Ma'am." But it was the hesitation Sam had been looking for. She was still young and inexperienced, and any lack of reaction to this gesture of creating openness between them would have troubled Sam. It was high time they unraveled Kali's history and determined if there was anything on a need-to-know basis before she could fully return to a normal life. And, having her full cooperation, the task seemed much easier, but no less a puzzle. In nineteen years, many trails may have become cold and nearly impossible to find.

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Author Notes: First chapter, done. I might have gone longer, but I need a small break. I was up 'til all hours last night just thinking about how to go about this section of the fanfic, and short of browsing and borrowing other people's ideas, I decided to just write and make it sound plausible. I mean, Jack has times when he wants to check on The Kids, Sam always winds up back at SGC it seems, and she would be interested in a new challenge like this. And if she could take Jack to throw some military weight around in case their subject went nuts and needed to be… quieted… it would help with clean up later afterwards. Can't be too careful, even if the alien was raised as a human. 

I also figure the government wouldn't want to mess around with the possibility of an alien child. Between the fact this incident was public and possibly near a city, and the news was all about the mystery child of an unknown woman who was "murdered", they wouldn't want to take government custody of the child, but instead give her to a family with strict guidelines, keeping a close eye on them for the first decade or so, until they decided the child was no threat.

In reviewing the timeline, I'm going to estimate the child's arrival would date in 1990, when the government already knows what could be out there, but would also not want anything to do with a possible alien that looks so human. That would put the year of this fic in 2009, about 3 years after the season's end. And we all know that in three years, the SGC has a tendency to move everywhere and no where. I'll introduce what they've been doing and why the Gate isn't public yet soon.

And, in case anyone wants to know, I'm not going to really do much of anything with the Ori at this point. I got bored with the storyline when it went in that direction, so I'm just skimming summaries of how it ends. I might involve them later, as they too posed as Gods, but the Goa'uld are making a wonderful return. And I'm toying with many ideas on the personalities of the new ones I'm introducing. Also, since many Gods have been seen as contradicting themselves, I'm going to take the liberty of saying that one Goa'uld has overwritten others in the past…

Now, either a hyper and somewhat insane Goa'uld or a brooding one. Choices, choices…

And much thanks for the review :3 Didn't expect anyone to even notice, hehe. And some things will be revealed about the mother later on, or so I'm hoping.


	3. Apsirin, the Miracle Drug

Disclaimer: All character references and appearances to those related to Stargate: SG1 are not of my own creation. The plot and rest of the characters are of my own making.

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**Chapter ****Two****–****Aspirin, the Miracle Drug**

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At first, Kali only saw the front of the structure, a large fence surrounding the perimeter and disappearing into the trees on either side. The road was wide enough for many vehicles to loiter around in the front for loading and unloading reasons and yet not block the path for those who went inside of the tunnel entrance of the complex. Over all, it looked like some secretive and large trap made of stone and concrete, and much too basic to guard a large secret. However, the Colonel assured her that there were many other security precautions to keep intruders out and the secret in. The last part of this reassurance stoked the fires of Kali's paranoia. The way the older woman had said it, the secret seemed to have legs of its own.

From the car all the way to the elevator, Carter kept up a brisk pace, probably to force Kali to either keep up or show that she was faltering in her choice. Had the younger woman not held such a firm grasp on her discipline and façade, she might have failed this test. Or, maybe there was no test at all. She shook her head slowly to herself, trying to stop her active imagination from causing the knots already in her stomach to tighten. But, the fact that everyone seemed able to read her mind wasn't helping her much. She had just been asking herself a few questions she had wished to be able to utter to the Colonel when she had been addressed and offered freedom to speak.

Some part of her wanted to accept that offer, but caution held her back. Who knew what slip of her words would betray her faults, and thus, remove her from this opportunity before she even had a chance to know what it was. Sometimes her curiosity bothered her to no end, and it had caused more than its fair share of trouble throughout Kali's life. Yet, she didn't often find herself in trouble when she became curious. Still, she didn't allow herself to follow her wishes often, least she be wrong for once and ruin whatever future she had been forging. Right now, she gave in to her want to see this path, because she hoped that it wouldn't affect her life so greatly that she was unable to live a normal life if she so chose. But now, she was starting to doubt her decision.

She refused to show any of these thoughts or facts with anyone around herself, her back still straight and her shoulders held back as she kept in step with the Colonel, behind her submissively, yet walking with the purpose of someone who had a right to be there. Her expression was still stoic, yet her body language seemed almost aggressive, daring anyone to question her. It was still her time off, technically, and she felt a little bolder when walking with Carter, putting a little faith in the superior to handle anything that came up. Again, she shook her head, wondering at herself and almost cringing.

Once inside of the elevator and safely on their way down, Carter spoke again, nearly making Kali jump as she finally tore herself away from her thoughts, "I'm not really the sort of person who goes out and recruits people, but it seems the very nature of the Stargate program pulls people out of every comfort zone they have and puts them on the spotlight."

That didn't sound promising. "And what is the nature of it?"

"Well, let's start with hypothetical theory. If you could go anywhere you wanted, where would it be?" Carter inquired, making Kali pause in thought.

"Somewhere peaceful," she said thoughtfully. "But alive. I don't know… because I've never heard of anyplace like that."

"Maybe because where you want to go isn't on this world. Maybe it's on another world," the Colonel said, sounding as if she understood Kali.

"Maybe," she agreed. "But that doesn't help me, seeing as there aren't any other places for me to go live on besides Earth."

"So, theoretically, if you had the ability to go to another world that was peaceful, you would go?"

"Theoretically," Kali agreed, raising a hand and pulling at her bun. It was starting to give her a headache. "What, does this Stargate program allow people to do that?"

"What if it did?" Carter inquired, looking straight at Kali. Brown eyes met blue and Kali forced herself to hold that gaze which held so much knowledge.

"Then I might think I would like to know more," she answered finally.

"Once you know, you can't ever go back without knowing everything," The Colonel warned her. For a moment, Kali didn't feel like an inferior officer talking to her superior out of turn, but like an equal. That knowledge disturbed her, making her lean back a little from Carter warily. The older woman smiled a little at the defensive gesture and Kali simply looked away from her. None of this made any sense to her. Why would she be treated like an equal?

"I think you're planning on telling me at this point anyway. We're almost into the heart of the complex, I've signed the contract, and you're coming about this far too forward for me to honestly believe you are going to simply let me go," Kali said bluntly, raising her chin a fraction again as she waited to be berated for speaking in such a manner. But she wanted to know, now. She wanted to test how far this woman was going to go with her buddy-buddy treatment. The fact was she would rather be treated like an inferior. All of these changes were causing so much stress, she almost thought something had broken in her already.

To her surprise, Carter simply smiled in answer. "Because there are some things you ought to know," she said cryptically. Before Kali could ask for clarification, the elevator reached their destination and allowed them to leave. The Colonel took no time in stepping out and immediately started down one of the many corridors, Kali following silently with more questions than ever burning in her mind.

To her surprise, the only place they ended up was a slightly messy office. Strange items were scattered about, written reports stacked in endless piles. Yet, there seemed to be functionality to the order of the mess, and it wasn't terribly hard to move around. Sam only seemed to be amused and not abashed at all as she pulled up a pair of chairs, taking a seat. With a frown, Kali sat across from the Colonel, wondering even more.

"Let's go back to hypothetical," Carter said, rather business-like, but by no means cold. She then pulled out a file from within arm's reach, sorting through it. "Say if there was someone on this world who wasn't born here, but was raised here. What would their alliances be to?"

Kali became very quiet. Then, she leaned back, relaxing at last. She still had no idea what to believe or what to think, but something told her that there was really nothing to think at this point. It was more or less an interview, she supposed. With a frown, she shrugged.

"That would be up to them. I wouldn't see why they would want to give their loyalty to a place they didn't grow up on, customs they might not understand completely. But, I can't speak for everyone… they have their reasons. Maybe they just want somewhere new to be and would say anything to get there?" she nibbled at her lower lip. "It would be strange to interact with that kind of person, I think. And probably even stranger for the alien. I don't think I really like the idea at all…" she frowned. "People don't even treat each other right consistently, why would anyone walk voluntarily into that position?"

"I don't know," Carter said, nothing in her expression showing what she thought of Kali's thoughts. Instead, she pulled out a large photograph and held it out for the young woman to take. She received the image and looked down at the photograph. It wasn't in the best quality, but it seemed a little old, so it was acceptable. The image showed a tortured looking landscape. It almost looked like someone took a bunch of construction machines and ran them amuck. "But we think one may have tried to do just that."

She frowned at the image. It seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't quite place the exact place where this picture had been taken. She simply looked away from the image and back to Carter, not certain why it even mattered. Once again, she seemed to be reading Kali's mind as she add, "That crash happened near your home town, and I wanted to see what kind of mentality towards aliens you might have. I'm rather impressed, really. I didn't expect you would be openly sympathetic towards them."

Kali closed her eyes, reliving her own childhood. Even though she had been lucky and Jason had loved her and protected her since a young age, making friends had been as hard as keeping them. For some reason they all rejected her in the end, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. It might have driven her insane without Jason's support. She had always had a suspicion not all of the adults in her youth were fond of her, but it still became something to be overlooked when her sometimes quick-tempered sibling dished out a quick and unfriendly punch.

"How couldn't I?" she said finally, softly, but made no move to expand on her statement.

To her relief, Carter didn't ask for an explanation, instead continuing, "Next question then. What sort of position have you been aiming for in the military?"

"I don't really know yet," she answered truthfully. She didn't relish the idea of combat or associating with others. Yet, she knew she may as well accept she would probably face the former at least once in her life and the latter until the day she died. "Perhaps something in mechanics or computers," she opened her eyes again, having relaxed a little more. Colonel Carter didn't even seem to be taking notes, nor had Kali seen her pick up anything official looking. All she had was a folder, which she had returned to looking through.

"Oh? Have you taken any courses in foreign language?" the Colonel asked, pulling out an old newspaper and flipping through it. Kali looked down at the old picture in her hands, a picture of a place close to where she had been born and raised, but in the past.

"Actually, yes…" Kali shrugged a little. "I started learning Spanish and took it for two years, then I had a year of German. I can't say I remember all of either, so I wouldn't be a reliable translator…"

"That wasn't really what I was asking about, believe it or not," Carter looked absorbed by whatever she was reading, speaking in an offhand tone. The younger woman glanced up from the picture in her hands to observe her superior, intrigued by the new tone of voice. "I wanted to actually know how well you understand learning a language."

"Fairly easily," she answered, a bit confused now. The military required you to have training in at least one other language, but what does learning a language have to do with knowing it? She shook her head, bewildered once again. "I don't speak it as well as I write it. That's to say, I can speak it and get the accents decently with some practice, but when I have to answer or recall what I'm asking, I get scrambled up, but reading and writing a language is cake."

Carter paused and looked up, making her stiffen and sit up straighter. "That's good," was all that she said, however. Praise wasn't what Kali had been expecting. "It's a nice start, at least. What else…" she looked away and the young woman almost melted in her chair, relaxing again as she let out a relieved sigh.

"Would you be willing to take up local residence?" she inquired after a moment's thought.

"I… suppose. I'd still like to know what I'm signing up for, non-hypothetically, and how these questions are supposed to help."

"Alright," she pulled out another file and handed her an enlarged picture. Kali hesitantly took it, then gazed down at the image. Her first impression of the Stargate was that someone had put a light under a pool of water and then took a picture looking down on it. But it was when she looked at the ring of the pool that she realized that her first notion wasn't right at all. The more she studied the image, the stranger it became to look at, her mind trying to figure out exactly what it was. The worst part of the image that threw her off was the strange ramp that lead up (or down) to the bright liquid surface. She looked away from the picture, then looked back at it, trying to keep her mind from getting stuck on her original idea. Eventually, she gave up on the idea of discerning exactly what she was looking at through photograph and gazed back up at her superior.

"What is this?"

"That is the Stargate," Carter supplied. "An advanced piece of alien technology which opens a wormhole between two Stargates when given the proper sequence of coordinates, which are in the form of constellations… meaning that we can use ours to travel to any other location off of this world that has one," she finished. Kali blinked slowly at the sudden ease and flow of her speech, something that hadn't been there up until this point, followed by Carter's breakdown of what she had just said, grateful for the dumb-people version. Otherwise, she would have needed to ask for a slower repeat.

"And that's what all of this secrecy and alien talk was about?" she asked slowly when she had gathered her bearing. Something about all of this struck a new cord in her, thrilling her with the idea and terrifying her even more at the same time. "So, what happened to the alien who landed near my home town?"

"I don't think you want to hear that story quite yet," Carter answered slowly. Kali regained her stoic mask, pulling back all of the casualness she had begun to show and gazed away from her superior.

"So, where do I sign up for this?" she inquired finally. "And what sort of programs do you run that I could look into for training, ma'am?"

She politely didn't see Carter's brief smile of relief, nor acknowledge that the passing look meant anything. All she wanted to know was where the aspirin stash was and what she had to do to get a few pills. All of this was hard to take in at once, no matter how well she seemed to absorb the information on the outside, it was starting to jam her processing ability and getting backed up.

* * *

Author's Notes: Decided to keep a little commentary for upcoming chapters on my profile page as well. As stated there, I managed to erase this entire chapter once already. Permanently. So now I re-wrote it, cutting out a Daniel and Vala introduction and saving it later and shortening the whole thing by about 2k words because I don't feel like expanding it past this point, sort of like the prologue. I suppose that on this story I have absolutely no size standards as long as it's not ridiculously tiny. So, you might expect a few chapters later on (if I don't delete them first) that might push 7k. I hope... Anyway, thank you for the reviews, and I am considering fixing the fic, shoving chapter 1 under the prologue and fixing the speech. Since I roleplay on WoW and that's a medieval setting, I do tend to get formal in the speech parts of it because that's how the characters talk... I'll try to break myself of that habit. 

As you can guess by now, Kali's reluctant to open up to anyone, especially a superior officer, which is why I originally had Daniel talking to her. Sam would figure that she might not be the best person to do this job. Being a scientist, she does often prefer her own work to going out into the world, so she would be a little awkward. And I haven't really seen her as the kind to throw her authority at people, taking a different approach and getting eye to eye with them. And once again, I know I suck at writing other people's characters... just imagine it's a few years from the last episode of Stargate so some things might have changed?


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